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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 1105675" data-attributes="member: 259">A player in my game got frustrated at my interpretation of diplomacy.  Using twinked-out multimagical effects, he achieved a diplomacy roll of something like 37 in an encounter with a guard. The guard had specific orders to prevent anyone from approaching a certain monastery (at which a massacre had occurred recently; his bosses wanted the massacre kept secret).  He was told to blow people off who asked to approach.  He knew that disobedience was often punished by torture and execution. Did the 37 on a diplomacy check convince this initially unhelpful guard to let the PCs explore the monastery?  Heck no!  It persuaded him to treat the diplomat with bowing and scraping humility, to offer up all kinds of excuses and apologies for the inconvenience; once he found out they'd explored the monastery anyway, it persuaded him to pretend they hadn't told him anything and to caution them to get out of dodge before his superiors found out. The diplomat player scowled and frowned afterward, telling me how disappointed he was at the miniscule effects of diplomacy.  Too bad, says I:  the skill, like all social skills, is limited by context.  You cannot bluff a relatively sane person into believing the sky is green (although you can bluff them into thinking that you're hallucinating a green sky).  You cannot intimidate an ancient red dragon into setting you free, after it's killed all your friends in one round(although you can intimidate it into killing you quickly rather than risking your wrath).  And you cannot diplomize a guard into risking a death by torture (although you can diplomize the guard into giving you some information about the situation and helping you avoid his superiors to a small degree). Playing otherwise just ruins my suspension of disbelief.  It leads to characters acting in ways basically contrary to how folks think.  And that's no good. Daniel</blockquote>

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